Composer Jerskin Fendrix scored ‘Bugonia’ without a script and only these 3 words from Yorgos Lanthimos to go on
Denton Davidson
Warning: This story contains information some viewers may consider spoilers.
When composer Jerskin Fendrix sat down with Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness director Yorgos Lanthimos to begin work on their third collaboration, Bugonia, he didn’t get a script or even a synopsis. Instead, Lanthimos handed him three words: “bees, basement, spaceship.”
“He asked me to record a full symphonic orchestral score based on those three words,” Fendrix tells Gold Derby. “Then I would give that to him, and he would say, ‘OK, this is enough music. You’re allowed to see it now.’”
When he finally did, he wasn’t allowed to make changes. “None,” Fendrix says, laughing. “That’s the point. I wasn’t allowed to.”
Bugonia stars Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis as conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap a high-powered CEO (played by Emma Stone), convinced that she’s an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The film opened nationwide on Oct. 31 and Fendrix's score is now available on all major music streaming platforms.
See exclusive footage of Fendrix with the London Contemporary Orchestra below.
From Shropshire to Hollywood
Fendrix grew up in rural Shropshire, England, in what he calls a “musical family.” “No other professional musicians, but a great deal of music in the household,” he says. “My mom was in the church choir and played piano. My dad played cello and guitar and was a very avid amateur cellist and general folk enthusiast.”
The house was filled with sound — and scripture. “There was a lot of Bach and church music from my parents being preachers,” he remembers, “and also a lot of Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, Nina Simone, and Warren Zevon in the house.”
It was also filled with books. “My dad was a literature professor,” Fendrix explains. “So there was a great deal of poetry — Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, John Berryman — and a lot of Shakespeare. It was a great household to grow up in. A lot of inspirations to absorb from pretty young.”
Fendrix began playing violin and piano early “without too much instruction or permission,” and eventually started writing his own pieces. “I wasn’t particularly good at anything else,” he admits, “so I just kept doing music. I probably just hoped at some point it would work out, but there was never a good strategy, to be honest.”
As for film scoring, Fendrix never imagined it was possible. “The difference between Shropshire in England and Hollywood and Los Angeles — that’s an unbridgeable distance,” he says. “Hearing Warren Zevon sing about getting drunk in a hotel in L.A. might as well have been fiction. That’s not a real place from where I’m from.”
‘He regards music telling you something you already know as patronizing’
Fendrix says Lanthimos’ methods are as unconventional as his films. “It’s probably unsurprising to hear Yorgos has unusual ways of directing his collaborators,” he says. “He correctly regards music telling you something that you’re already being told — or something you should maybe decide for yourself — as a bit of a patronizing or redundant way of using music.”
Because of that, Fendrix doesn’t see any footage until after he’s written the score. “The first couple of films I was given scripts, but that’s depleted over time,” he explains. “For Bugonia, he didn’t want me to know the plot or premise. Just those three words. He wanted something ridiculous and over the top and melodramatic — and in order to get me to do that, all he needed to say was, ‘Here’s a 90-piece orchestra, do whatever you want with it.’”
‘I have a very long research period before I even start writing’
Fendrix’s process is intense and heavily research-driven. “I have a very long research period before I even start writing notes,” he says. “For Poor Things, I spent a lot of time in medical research libraries, looking at Victorian medical textbooks. Yorgos knows I like to do that, so he knew I’d take this as a fun challenge.”
Those three words — bees, basement, spaceship — led him down unexpected rabbit holes. “There’s a huge amount of stuff to be derived from that,” he says. “Bees have a fascinating cultural history with the Greeks and the Romans and in Middle English. Subterranean architecture led me to Gaston Bachelard and The Poetics of Space. For spaceships, I went to a spaceship museum and drew a lot of shapes and geometries.”
He began seeing patterns. “Basements are low and subterranean, spaceships go to the stratosphere, bees dig into the ground or fly,” he explains. “So these ideas about altitude and distance — going from very high to very low — ended up manifesting in the score.”
'Adolescent recklessness'
Fendrix recorded the score with the London Contemporary Orchestra, who embraced his experimental approach. “They’re extremely competent on their instruments, but also very imaginative and creative,” he says. “They’re up for doing stuff that’s out of normal players’ comfort zones — stuff that might be a bit difficult or embarrassing or bizarre.”
He often gives direction that doesn’t make literal sense. “If you tell a classically trained player to play in a stupid way or an embarrassing way — which I do often — it moves them into a different space,” he says. “It doesn’t mean play badly or out of tune. It’s like a four-dimensional shift. The purpose isn’t precision anymore. It’s interpretation. And that makes an orchestra sound different to how orchestras usually sound.”
Conducting the sessions himself added to the effect. “It probably gave it another level of adolescent recklessness that it might not have had with a more experienced conductor,” he says.
‘Having these incredible colleagues made me feel normal’
Fendrix’s Oscar nomination for Poor Things brought its own surreal moment. “It was basically as surreal as you’d imagine,” he says. “It was the first time I’d been to Los Angeles. It was heady, intense.”
The highlight, though, was bringing his family. “The best part of that season was bringing my mom and my brothers to the Oscars,” he says. “If you get up for these things, it’s not really possible to process it as a person — but your mom can. She was so grateful to this group of people — Yorgos, Emma, everyone — for taking care of me. Being on the red carpet with her was great.”
He credits that same circle of collaborators with keeping him grounded. “It definitely feels like a troupe,” he says. “Everyone is supportive. When someone does other projects or gets nominated for something, we’re all cheering for them. Having this group of people is really, really important for me.” In proof of that support, Stone even appeared in Fendrix’s music video for his song “Beth’s Farm,” directed by Lanthimos.
Songwriting vs. film scoring
Fendrix continues releasing his own solo music, which offers a different kind of creative outlet. “Writing songs is very self-centered — it’s my voice, my words,” he says. “Film scoring is the opposite. You have to completely remove yourself and step into someone else’s story.”
His concerts, he admits, are emotionally taxing. “They’re very personal, very intense, sad things this time around,” he says. “With the film work, I’m part of a large machine where everyone supports each other. Onstage, it’s just me.”
Then he smiles. “I find it probably a bit more comfortable to be part of a large unit than to be the guy that everyone’s f--king staring at.”
